S-TRAW-BE-RRY

Yang Chen curled his lips. He couldn’t possibly tell her that things like these were far too low for his standards in the past, so he casually replied, “I’m not a habitual coffee drinker.”

He stopped the car for them to get off but kept the conversation flowing. Rose took the initiative to hold onto Yang Chen’s arm. Her bright eyes glittered with excitement, looking just like a little girl in a Barbie doll shop. They walked together into the fairly small Starbucks.

Since the two of them had gotten off a snow white BMW, they naturally attracted the attention of many of the passersby. Many could not help themselves and looked back over their shoulders when they noticed Rose’s gorgeous, happy face.

Yang Chen was no saint. He felt extremely smug in his heart. Every time he appeared on the streets with his woman, it made many envy. He hoped that one day, he would be able to walk down the street with a few of his women gently leaning against him. Who knows, it might make the other males burn with murderous intent.

Regrettably, such a scenario was just a dream for now.

This Starbucks was much smaller than the one he had been to with Lin Ruoxi, but it had a European-study-room style and layout. The thick aroma of coffee wafted through the air, and classic-looking leather chairs and small wooden tables were arranged nicely.

A few people, male and female, who looked like white-collared workers sat there. Some were surfing the Internet on their laptops while some were reading magazines. When they saw Yang Chen and Rose entering the cafe, their expressions twisted to ones of confusion.

It wasn’t because the duo had flowers growing on their faces. It was just that, although Yang Chen had become a gold-collar worker in the company, he looked no different from his appearance when he used to sell mutton skewers. His lazy look was hardly any different from those jobless vagrants on the streets.

As for Rose, although she was a woman who grew up in the underworld environment, she carried herself with an air of elegance found only amongst the young ladies in noble clans. No matter how anyone looked at it, she seemed to be from a much higher rank than Yang Chen. Moreover, Yang Chen had a very normal, average face. Compared to Rose’s beauty, he was basically a toad lusting after a swan’s meat.

Immediately, most people let out a sigh in their hearts, no wonder people say that nice guys finish last. Who knows how many lifetimes of bad luck had this guy had gone through to make such a beautiful flower so willingly stay put with him in this lifetime.

Yang Chen couldn’t be bothered with their stares. He brought Rose straight up to the counter and smiled. “Just order anything you want to drink.”

Rose looked at the variety of beverages stated on the few boards. She became slightly dazed at the expansive menu. All she had drunk in her younger days was pearl milk tea. She knew little about these coffee and cold beverages.

There was no way she was going to order one of each to try. Rose turned her head around to see what the other customers in the cafe were drinking. She didn’t plan to ask, the moment she saw something that she liked she would ask for the same drink.

After two rounds of scanning, Rose’s eyes lit up. She spun Yang Chen around and pointed at a big cup of drink that a woman in white suit sitting not too far away was drinking. And she said, “Hubby, I want that one!”

Yang Chen looked carefully and saw that the female white-collared worker was drinking a pink-color iced drink. It looked very attractive. It was no wonder Rose took a liking to it immediately.

Yang Chen had no idea what that drink was called either, so he asked the female cashier at the counter, “Miss, may I know what that lady over there is drinking?”

The cashier maintained her smile, but she did not even try to hide the look of contempt in her eyes towards Yang Chen. After all, she was still young, and was not skilled in the art of pleasing people with politeness.

“Sir, that lady is drinking STRAWBERRY. It’s a specially custom-made cold beverage that’s not on the menu,” The cashier explained.

Yang Chen nodded in realization. Some coffee or cold beverages were preferred by certain customers, but they were not sold all year round in the cafe. Hence they were not listed in the menu. It didn’t mean that they wouldn’t make it for you if you ordered that item. After all, businesses had to be flexible to stay relevant.

Perhaps the cashier had mentioned the name in English on purpose, Rose did not understand what on earth this drink was. So she tugged at Yang Chen’s arm, and openly asked, “Hubby, this ‘S-TRAW-BE-RRY’ thing, what is it?”

“So strawberry is called S-TRAW-BE-RRY. I’ll have one of that then. But I don’t need such a big cup.” Rose had no experience, so she didn’t feel the need for an overly large cup.

She had just finished her sentence when a mocking laughter came from behind them, as though not on purpose. “A country pumpkin pretending to be high class. How ridiculous.”

Yang Chen and Rose did not lower their voices while speaking. On top of that, the cafe was quiet and small, and many people were eavesdropping on their conversation. Thus, they were overheard by quite a number of people.

There was a lady nearby who wore a pair of narrow, black-framed glasses. She was quite attractive on the surface. Donning a set of light silver grey suit, she gave off quite the knowledgeable vibe. Before this she had been paying close attention to Rose’s speech and behavior out of the mentality of comparison. It was only natural for her to compare herself to someone better looking than herself.

Now that she discovered how clueless Rose was regarding Starbucks, and that she did not even know the simplest word in English—strawberry, her eyes immediately glowed with contempt. She felt her self-confidence boost once again.

Having developed an arrogant temper from life in a big city, that female white-collared worker uttered that mocking sentence.

And once she muttered it out, a few other highly educated working class people who had the same thoughts followed suit and let out a seemingly profound laughter. Many looked mockingly at Yang Chen and Rose.

Rose did not expect a few words to cause so much contempt to flow from them to her. She rarely showed up at normal public occasions, so she had little opportunities to get in contact with these normal white-collared workers in the city. Now that she was being mocked at, she did not feel angry for being looked down at. Instead, she awful for embarrassing Yang Chen in a public place.

Although with just a snap of her fingers, her men from Red Thorns Society could easily make these worthless white-collared workers suffer miserably. These people were just ordinary civilians after all. If she were to use her underworld power to deal with them, it would only make her seem even more pitiful.

Yang Chen initially did not want to bother about these people. These people had nothing better to do than to seek a sense of superiority from ‘the weak’. Expanding any time or effort on them would be wasted.

However, when Yang Chen noticed the slightly dim, upset and wronged look in Rose’s eyes, he decided not to simply rest the matter.

Yang Chen wrapped his arm around Rose’s waist and walked straight up to the face of that white-collared female who was speaking. With an expressionless face, he said, “Apologize to my woman, you made her unhappy.”

That white-collared female was typing away at some document on her Apple laptop. Hearing Yang Chen’s words, she did not even raise her head, and just continued typing while uttering a foreign sentence, “Pas besoin d'un crapaud ici.”

Nowadays, there were lots of people who returned from overseas studies or work. Quite a number of customers in the cafe had returned from overseas too. They could quickly tell that this woman was speaking French.

Obviously, this was another attempt by the woman to make a fool out of Yang Chen and Rose. The woman’s intentions were simple: You want to reason? Sure, but can you understand what I’m saying?”

His native Parisian accent when speaking French finally made the woman who had her head down raise it with her eyes wide with shock. She stared at Yang Chen unbelievably. And all the surrounding onlookers were also stunned. They even doubted if they had heard mistakenly. This youngster that looked like he had difficulty even graduating from junior high school, how could he possibly speak such authentic French?

Rose, on the other hand, was filled with joy. Although she couldn’t understand the conversation, she could tell that Yang Chen was getting even with the lady for her.

She was no weak lady. Precisely because of that, it was especially rare for her to be protected by a man.

“Shocked? You think that you are the only one in this whole world who can speak French? Is it a disgrace not being able to speak English? Do you know that your parents, your grandparents, they all did not speak English as well? There are plenty of people who don’t speak English. If the English speaking community are all just a bunch of arrogant, self-conceited fellows, that is truly the most miserable thing in this world,” Yang Chen said flatly.

The white-collared female’s face turned red. And those nearby couldn’t say a word. They were all rational people. The truth—no matter how blunt and how painful—was still the truth. However, people tend to turn a blind eye to it due to their arrogance.

“My woman may not be able to speak English, but that is nothing that she has to be ashamed about. She expressed it openly. The two of us rarely drink coffee, and we rarely patronize places like this. But that doesn’t mean we are unable to spend in places like this one. It also doesn’t mean that we are in any way inferior to you,” Yang Chen continued in a cold tone, “If you still refuse to apologize, I don’t mind suing you with the charges of personal attack. You can try that.”

Yang Chen wasn’t just trying to frighten her, nor was he crazy. When dealing with normal citizens, the best method was to follow the normal society’s rules, and that is the law.

He couldn’t just snap that woman’s head off simply because she upset Rose.

Every world had rules of its own, just like the gods wouldn’t couldn’t remove their seals on mortal humans, and Hongmeng wouldn’t meddle with worldly affairs.

Now that Yang Chen had achieved a breakthrough in both his cultivation and his mental state of mind, he had a deeper understanding of these unspoken rules.

“S—Sorry. Please forgive me.” The white-collared female finally lowered her head. Although she was reluctant to, she knew that there was no way out of this if she didn’t apologize, not to mention it would make her seem like a sore loser.

Yang Chen was finally satisfied. Wrapping his arms around Rose’s waist, they returned to the counter and ordered two medium size strawberry lemon juice from the cashier who was still recovering from the events.

By the time their pink colored drinks were served, Rose’s unhappy mood before this had all disappeared. She carefully took a sip, and then furrowed her brows, as though it tasted weird.

“Why, does it taste bad?” Yang Chen asked.

Rose shook her head. “It’s a little sour, but a little sweet with a strawberry flavoring. It’s also very smooth. Maybe it feels weird because of the many flavours in the drink.”

Yang Chen was in no hurry to drink it. He grabbed her hand and walked out of the cafe. He planned to drink it while looking for a suitable restaurant for dinner after they got into the car.

“Hubby, what did you say to that woman just now?” Rose bit on her straw, and asked with a soft voice, revealing an adorable, feminine look. It was a relaxed side of her that she could only show when she had relieved her burden and was with Yang Chen.

“I thought you were going to use force on her just now and I was a bit worried. After all, it’s not worth getting ourselves into trouble over simple matters like that one. And it’s true that I’m not highly educated. It’s okay if people make a few comments on that,” Rose said softly.

“What nonsense are you saying? You don’t even owe her money, why should you let others comment on you like that. Even if you’re fine with it, I’m not,” Yang Chen said, frowning.

Rose pursed her lips and asked, “Hubby, be honest with me. Do you feel uncomfortable because I disgraced you?”

Yang Chen stopped walking and answered seriously, “Thing only thing I feel for you is how grateful I am to you. For you to still be standing by my side after all this time. To me, even if you couldn’t count properly with your fingers, I would still find you adorable. Do you understand what I mean? I’m really going to get mad if you keep saying things like that.”

Rose nodded her head with a thoughtful look on her face, and laughed, “Although I’m not highly educated, I know that ‘ignorance is a woman’s virtue’. Yup, it would seem like that is true. Only dumb women like me are able to find nice men like you.”

Yang Chen reached out his hand and gave her nose a pinch, making her pout adorably in embarrassment.

“I think I should just call you ‘dummy’. What kind of logic is that?” Yang Chen sighed. He was about to ask Rose what she would like for dinner when he realized that Rose had suddenly stood still, her eyes fixated on two silhouettes that appeared to their right.